Bound to The Enemy of My Mate
The very air hummed with a deep, unsettling silence, broken only by the weak, rattling cough of a child from within one of the hovels, a sound that spoke of a body losing its fight.
They dismounted slowly, their boots sinking into mud that seemed unnaturally sticky and dark.
"By the gods," Kael whispered, his face pale as he took in the devastation. "What happened here?"
Thane's nostrils flared, his heightened senses bombarded by the pollution. He crouched by the stream, but didn't touch it, his body recoiling slightly from the fumes.
"The poison," he said, his voice grim. "It's concentrated. It's like the source vomited its entire contents into the water all at once."